Families eager to live in a Disney neighborhood will find a variety of homes along tree-lined streets in the first small world planned for Chatham County’s Asteria development, plans show.
A “preliminary plat,” or initial map, that The News & Observer obtained Wednesday from the town of Pittsboro provides more details about the first phase of the multiyear Storyliving by Disney project, which will be built on currently forested land within the larger Chatham Park development.
Arizona-based DMB Development will build the 1,550-acre community northeast of the U.S. 15-501-U.S. 64 interchange, according to an April 5, 2024, letter sent to the nonprofit Haw River Assembly, while Disney will design, own and operate less than 55 acres of “core amenities.”
In March, DMB Development paid $23.3 million for the first 217 acres of Asteria and filed the preliminary plat, which shows 343 single-family homes, 57 townhomes, 50 duplexes and 44 quadplexes could be built in the project’s first phase. Parking would be provided in driveways and garages, as well as 430 on-street parking spaces.
The plan designates 25 acres on the neighborhood’s eastern border as a future “commons area.” and notes that more than 29 acres of open space and 18 acres of park land are planned. The developer would preserve or plant about 50 acres of trees, mostly in stream buffers.
The primary entrance would be Asteria Boulevard, a new, east-west road starting at Grant Drive and Chatham Parkway. Tree-lined streets — with names like “Pine Frost Lane,” “Summer Sky Road,” and “Starchaser Lane” — would branch out from there.
The Pittsboro Planning Board will review the draft site plan May 19, and it will go to the Pittsboro Town Board after that for review and approval.
Disney announced plans for Asteria, its second Storyliving by Disney brand community, in December 2023. A second Disney community, Cotino, is being built in Rancho Mirage, California, with homes selling for $1 million to $2 million.
The Asteria name honors the state’s native aster flower and its “natural beauty,” officials have said.
Pittsboro spokesman Colby Sawyer said the community could be built in nine phases, totaling 4,000 homes between Chatham Park’s Mosaic mixed-use district and the Haw River.
Disney Imagineers are working with DMB Development to plan the amenities, focused on outdoor living and lifelong learning, with swimming pools, outdoor spaces and fire pits. Special events could include “family fun days” with Disney-themed activities and games, Disney artist-led classes, and storytelling dinners, officials have said.
Other neighborhood amenities include parks, a clubhouse, wellness and recreation center, restaurant, trails and community garden.
Disney officials have said the first homes could go on the market by 2027.
As the town board approves each phase, the developer will work with builders to incorporate any feedback and draw more detailed plans, including proposed landscaping and architecture.
Town staff will review those plans and sign off on construction. Sawyer has said the town does not have a timeline for its process.
Asteria’s plan to coexist with the Haw River and the surrounding forest remains a major concern, especially for the Haw River Assembly, a nonprofit citizens group founded in 1982.
The group and its executive director, Elaine Chiosso, have been vocal critics of Chatham Park, where developer Chatham Park Investors is turning 8,500 acres into a technology-centric, master-planned community of 60,000 people, 22,000 homes and 22 million square feet of business, medical and commercial construction.
Asteria will hug the river, wrapping around part of the 1,357-acre Lower Haw River State Natural Area, one of the exceptional natural areas that N.C. State Parks has identified for conservation and preservation.
Asteria is expected to meet the same construction and conservation requirements as the rest of Chatham Park, which has caused deep concerns for some residents and the Haw River Assembly.
The group has accused Chatham Park of deforestation, erosion and other environmental impacts, posting photos and documents on its website that show county citations for erosion and sedimentation issues.
Asteria should have stronger protections for the river, its habitats and mature forests than Chatham Park, the Haw River Assembly told Disney and DMB Development in a Jan. 25, 2024, letter.
“We fear this valuable public land and the Haw River it adjoins will be degraded by the removal of the forest nearby, and the introduction of lights, noise and roads,” Chiosso said in the letter.
DMB Development partner Mary Alexander responded April 5, 2024, saying Disney is not responsible for land development or for meeting Pittsboro’s environmental requirements.
Asteria is “required to comply with the development standards, constraints, and requirements” that the town established for Chatham Park, she said, citing in particular tree and stream buffer protections, 200-foot-wide wildlife corridors and pollinator programs, water conservation, and bike and pedestrian trails.
The site, Alexander said, will “be developed in a manner that respects the watershed.”
Chiosso took issue in her reply with the characterization of Disney as a small player in the project. She also highlighted in detail the ongoing concerns and protests that have dogged Chatham Park, citing nearly 1,000 signatures on a petition seeking more protections for “this unique environment, with its rich diversity of wildlife and plant species.”
TG
The News & Observer
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Tammy Grubb has written about Orange County’s politics, people and government since 2010. She is a UNC-Chapel Hill alumna and has lived and worked in the Triangle for over 30 years.